Nutrition fact labels (NFLs) have advantages because they are an intuitive tool that provides unified information regulated by the government and does not require any devices or special skills. During pandemic, with increased interest in information about healthy food choices and optimum nutrition, frequent exposure to NFLs on pre-packaged foods and dietary supplements may have helped consumers become aware of and/or use NFLs. We aimed to evaluate NFL usage changes from the pre- and early to the late pandemic years in the Korean adult population, using data from the Korean Community Health Survey (3-year total respondents n = 687,610) conducted from 2019 to 2021. NFL awareness, effect, and utilization ratios in each subgroup (sex, age, diabetes mellitus/hypertension, subjective health status, and physical activity) were analyzed for the 3 years by the cross-tabulation test of weighted complex sample analysis. Despite the declining awareness of NFLs in the Korean population, the proportion of individuals who were affected by the NFL content in the entire population and the utilization ratio among those who were aware of NFLs increased continuously during the early and late pandemic periods. Thus, Nutrition experts and policy-makers need to increase efforts to maintain interest in NFLs that emerged during the pandemic. NFLs, a conventional but well-regulated and effective tool, may have enabled the Korean population to make healthy food choices during the pandemic.

This study was conducted to analyze the biochemical index, nutrient intakes, nutrition label use, diet-related factors and weight control behavior of Korean female adolescents at the age of 12 to 18 according to body mass index (BMI) by using the results of the 2010 and 2011 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys. The obese group had higher waist circumference (p < 0.001) and systolic blood pressure (p < 0.01) than the normal group. In the biochemical index, the obese group had lower serum high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol level (p < 0.001), while their triglyceride level was higher than the normal group (p < 0.01). Nutrient intake according to BMI was not significantly different except carbohydrate, and calcium intake was about 53% of recommended nutrient intake in all study subjects. The nutrition label was recognized in more than 90% of all groups. But actual nutrition label use was below 50% in all groups and the underweight group was the lowest (p < 0.05). In the result for subjective body image perception, even in the group with normal BMI, 25.3% recognized themselves as obese, and 75.3% said they were trying to lose weight, indicating that many female teens actually think their bodies are obese. In conclusion, obese female adolescents have high systolic blood pressure and serum triglyceride concentrations, which requires obesity prevention education. And a large number of female adolescents with normal BMI thought they were obese and tried to lose weight. Therefore, education on healthy weight and calcium intake is necessary.